Creator and commerce decision
Fcd
A capable developer can build the core marketplace and subscription gating in about a week, but replicating FCD’s existing creator catalog, audience, and marketplace value (traffic/creators) is not realistic without time or marketing spend.
Visit website↗Built by Kevin Middleton | FootballGPT, who ships 7 products in this index
$20/mo
$240/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off36 h to build
$30/mo3 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 2 seats.
No open-source build does this yet
Nothing published replaces this one, so a replacement starts from an empty file. Here is what it would have to cover.
What a replacement has to do
- Subscriber browses sessions -> view/download session plans (PDF/images) -> creators upload session plans -> track views to split revenue -> manage subscription access
What it still won’t have
- Existing creator library and initial catalog (515 session plans, 4 creators)
- Established subscriber base and ongoing traffic
- Built-in leaderboard, guides, and curated directory ranking
- Brand presence and any affiliate relationships
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 2 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a lightweight session-marketplace web app using Next.js (React) + Node, Postgres for metadata, AWS S3 for file storage, Stripe for subscriptions/payments, and Google OAuth for auth. Core features in scope: (1) browse/search/filter session plans with thumbnails and tags, (2) creator dashboard to upload PDFs/images and view usage, (3) gated subscriber access with Stripe subscription checkout ($20/mo as reference), (4) usage tracking that records each session view and a monthly revenue-splitting report, (5) commenting on sessions, (6) admin UI to approve listings. Out of scope: marketplace discovery marketing, paid advertising, advanced ranking algorithms. Require error handling for uploads/payments, input validation, tests for auth, upload, payment flows, and deployment scripts (Docker + managed Postgres).
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- 2 cited sources+1
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- Evidence score56
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 2
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productFCD homepage
- official pricingSession Library Pricing
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
